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Tracing Living Relatives

"Thanks to Mathew's research, I have now met cousins in Wales I never knew I had!"
Karen T

Living relatives

As a consequence of researching people's family histories, I often come across cousins, etc, whom clients either had
not spoken to for years, or didn't even know existed. As a result of these finds, I have often united (or reunited)
people with each other.

It can of course be quite a sensitive area, and usually I supply my client with contact details, rather than
contact the relative myself. However, whenever the client, or I, have made contact with someone, they are more often than
not delighted to have found their 'new' relatives.

Sometimes I have specific requests to locate living relatives. This is not always possible (especially with limited
information, or with common names). However, the majority of my requests have been successful.

Reuniting families with old photographs

I have found many collections of old photographs at auctions and boot fairs over the years. If any of the photographs
are labelled, it is often possible to trace the family, and thereafter trace living descendants.
They usually find their way to an auction via a house clearance, where someone has died leaving no spouse or children.

The picture to the left is from an album I had found on Ebay. Using the photograph on the right, showing the address and
the year, and finding the odd name elsewhere in the album, I was able to trace the family in the album. From there I was able to
trace a great grandson of the lady in this photograph, and pass the the album on to him.

I recently reunited Terence with some family photographs he hadn't seen since the 1950s when he was a small boy.
His father had died young, and his step-mother lost contact with the children, so all the photographs fell to
a house clearance.